Prisoner: I'm From Al-qaeda

Officials Cut Short Detainee's Statement

August 27, 2004|By John Hendren, Los Angeles Times

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- A Yemeni prisoner confessed Thursday to being a member of al-Qaeda during a preliminary hearing before a military commission, but was cut off in midsentence by the presiding official and was not allowed to complete his statement.

In a show-stopping moment in the third day of military hearings for accused terrorists, Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul said in Arabic: "People of the entire globe know that I testify that the American government put me under no pressure. I am from al-Qaeda and the relationship between me and Sept 11th . . ."

Al Bahlul was halted by retired Army Col. Peter Brownback III, who told his four fellow commission members serving as judges to disregard the statement. Brownback said the trial had not reached the stage where the detainee could offer a plea and said it was unclear whether al Bahlul would be represented by an attorney and therefore should not issue a plea.

At a briefing in Washington, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway, the chief Pentagon legal adviser on the commissions, said that if it is determined that al Bahlul's statement prejudiced the panel, Brownback could convene another commission.

He is the third detainee to face a preliminary hearing before the military commission, which began considering charges against some of the 585 detainees at Guantanamo this week.

Al Bahlul, 36, has said he does not want an attorney appointed by the U.S. military and would prefer to represent himself.

Brownback first said rules would not allow detainees to represent themselves, but later said he would pass the question on to retired Army Maj. Gen. John Altenburg, head of the Pentagon Office of Military Commissions.